Re: [ox-en] Some thoughts upon the GPL society
- From: "Niall Douglas" <s_fsfeurope2 nedprod.com>
- Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2003 03:16:07 -0000
On 2 Dec 2003 at 3:23, johan soderberg wrote:
Humans desire to express themselves, to be creative, socially
participate with their surrounding and make meaning out of their
existence - these are the 'work drives' Marx thought of. In
fashionable Empire-speak, it is labour striving for self-valorisation
instead of being commanded into valorisation of capital. It must be
playful, volunteerly, and free from coercion and hierarchy. Under
these conditions, most peolple will happily engage in 'labour', or
better: play. (the fact that many people today does not engage
activily in their spare time but instead 'turn on the TV and turn off
the brain', owes to their exhausting, routine toil, and being engulfed
by passive, consumer-leissure). Those 20% who work willingly does not
do that out of any particular characteristics inherent to them, but
simply because they got stimulating, middle-class jobs, while most
others dont.
I know what you're saying, but I disagree. I have spent much time
among the working classes and I find an equal proportion of them just
as dedicated to doing a good job as the middle or upper classes -
therefore it seems to me that pride in one's work is a cross-class
characteristic.
As to whether this characteristic is nature or nurture (inherited or
resulting from how the child was raised) I'll tend to believe it's
more nurture. The countless millions who waste their lives away
reading pointless magazines and watching pointless life-draining TV I
think do not do so because they are somehow inferior, it's because
they know no better and are encouraged to do so by big business who
wants to advertise to them and more importantly, to follow societal
norms which are illustrated clearly by the same.
I find myself terribly divided over whether people should have more
free time or not. One part of me thinks that with free time more time
is spent improving society and oneself, but the other part of me
knows that time spent outside work for most people is spent consuming
and other fruitless soul-sucking activities. I'd like to believe Ivan
Illich's "Deschooling Society" but I know his solution is as broken
as Marx's was :(
What I do know is that as evidenced by the recent mass protests
against the Iraq war, people are more political than the polls would
give them credit. I personally have never voted because I view it as
pointless - the media have far greater influence on policy than
democracy. Nevertheless, I was among the record-breaking numbers
worldwide demonstrating against war and that must mean something is
changing.
Anyway, we're getting off-topic. Here's a new thread (seeing as none
but one replied to my last post) - would we all not agree that the
economics of free software production most closely resemble that of
artists eg; production of paintings etc? If you think about it,
painters view each other's work and draw ideas from those to create
their own. Kinda similar, but different.
Cheers,
Niall
_______________________
http://www.oekonux.org/